نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسنده English
This qualitative study examines the goals, motivations, and lived experiences of female students at Ilam University through semi-structured interviews with seventeen participants. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that entering university is perceived by most participants as a “certain and obvious” stage of life. Beyond its educational function, the university serves additional roles, including the acquisition of social prestige, the experience of individual independence, identity formation, and the enhancement of self-confidence. However, structural constraints in the labor market and the widespread unemployment of educated women render future career prospects uncertain and, for many students, discouraging.
For many participants, the university functions as a “window for social participation” and the expansion of interpersonal relationships. Experiences within dormitory life and involvement in student organizations have contributed significantly to both individual and social development. At the same time, the university, as a mixed-gender space, offers many female students their first sustained interactions with the opposite sex. This experience, however, is shaped by official gender segregation policies and conservative social norms, which generate pressures, restrictions, and the reproduction of gender stereotypes.
Overall, despite these constraints, the university emerges as a significant platform for the redefinition of female gender roles and identities. Simultaneously, it exposes the persistent tension between the university’s emancipatory potential and its role in reproducing mechanisms of gender inequality.
کلیدواژهها English
